The 4 Nations Face-Off can't have any trades, obviously — but what if it did?

New York Times

09-02-2025

There are no trades in the 4 Nations Face-Off.
There couldn't be. It wouldn't make any sense. Players play for their home countries, just like every other international tournament. Each team has a GM, but that guy's job is simply to assemble the best roster he can from the players available to him. Making trades with that roster? That would be dumb.
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So let's be very, very clear: We acknowledge that what you're about to read is indeed dumb, and we're doing it anyway.
Four of The Athletic's hockey writers have been assigned a 4 Nations team and told to make trades to improve the roster. What exactly 'improve' will mean is up to each GM, but the ground rules look like this:
• Each team has to make one trade with each other team, for a total of three trades each and six overall.
• In this very fake scenario, we assume that all trades are permanent, meaning any players acquired would remain property of that nation for the 2026 Olympics and beyond.
• Any player who is eligible for a national team can be dealt. That means we're not limited to the players who are actually on a 4 Nations roster; the various snubs and near-misses and prospects are eligible too.
• There are no draft picks in these trades. That would be unrealistic!
Julian McKenzie will be GM for Team Canada. Mark Lazerus will handle Team USA. The two Seans get Europe, with Gentille taking Sweden and McIndoe getting Finland.
This post is about fake trades that will not happen and can not happen, under any circumstances. We're hoping it will be fun and entertaining, but it's possible that it will be a complete waste of your time. The whole thing is completely ridiculous, and if you're the sort of person who'll be bothered by that, you can hit the back button right now. Nobody would think any less of you.
Still here? Yikes. OK, you've got nobody to blame but yourself. Let's do this.
Team USA
I could win this tournament with Team USA: The Oops, All Goalies edition. Goalies at every position. Goalies up front. Goalies on the back end. Goalies quarterbacking the power play. Goalies in the shootout. Yes, I have too many great goaltenders; woe is me. Let's see if I can fleece some needy, struggling, second-tier hockey nation like, oh, I don't know, Canada, by dangling one of my umpteen world-class goalies in front of them, distracting them like a little kitten and stealing all their stuff. – Lazerus
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Team Canada
I want to improve Canada's depth in goal, not just for the present but for the future. I hope to move around some young talent to get some pieces that can help me at the 4 Nations, in 2026 and beyond. I'm pretty comfortable with my depth up and down the lineup and in my reserves, so I'm willing to listen to most offers. – McKenzie
Team Sweden
Are we the favorites? No. Can we still win this thing? Absolutely. I've got high-end pieces and quality depth at goaltending and along the blue line, and I'm trying to use both to improve at forward. I also want guys who can help next week, next year and in 2030, so I'm going to target players in their 20s. No need to be precious about prospects here; Sweden has won gold before, and we can do it again. – Gentille
Team Finland
With Finland already a big underdog before we found out Miro Heiskanen would miss the tournament, I'm focused on the future. I'm not throwing in the towel because we have Jusse Saros and anything can happen in a short tournament. But I'm going to try to add some younger pieces, especially on the blue line, that will help us contend for gold at next year's Olympics and (especially) beyond. With the other three GMs apparently in 'win now' mode, it's possible this could shape up as a seller's market.
And no, I'm obviously not trading Aleksander Barkov. Well, unless somebody absolutely blows me away, he said, perhaps dropping some ironic foreshadowing into an intro nobody will read. – McIndoe
It doesn't take long for Canada to address its goaltending. But it's not with the trade pairing we were expecting.
The trade: Sweden trades Filip Gustavsson to Canada for Seth Jarvis.
The Team Canada view: Losing Jarvis is going to hurt. But we have more than enough forward depth to make a move like this. Gustavsson is the bell cow for Minnesota and will likely see time for Sweden at this year's tournament. In this scenario, he'll be No. 2 to Jake Oettinger (stay tuned…). But if Oettinger needs to be relieved, Gustavsson can prove to be a more-than-adequate replacement. – McKenzie
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The Team Sweden view: We like Gustavsson a lot. His ceiling is obvious — a .931 save percentage in 2022-23 says plenty, as does the bounce-back season he's having for Minnesota. The less said about 2023-24, the better. Down the line, though maybe not until in 2030, he'd have a shot at the permanent starting job. Right now? He's a backup. For a team with holes elsewhere, that's a luxury we can't afford. Jarvis, quite literally, could play throughout our lineup, and he's just 23 years old. Don't typecast him as an energy guy, either. He's well on pace for his second straight 30-goal season.
In net, I'm fine to roll with some combo of Linus Ullmark and Jacob Markstrom for the next year and hope someone (Wild prospect Jesper Wallstedt, perhaps) steps up in the meantime to join Ullmark in 2030. – Gentille
That's a big move, but will it be enough for Canada in the crease? We'll see about that, but for now let's move on to a smaller deal.
The trade: Finland trades Roope Hintz and Kaapo Kakko to Sweden for Simon Edvisson and Axel Sandin Pellikka.
The Team Finland view: Like I said, we're focused on the future. We move Hintz, who's a very good player now and still will be in 2026 but might be declining by 2030, for two defensemen with elite upside who can be part of three Olympics for us. Also, after years of dumping on the Yzerplan, landing two Wings prospects will ensure that Detroit fans don't call me an idiot in the comments for once. – McIndoe
The Team Sweden view: We're cooking, folks. With William Karlsson out, my center depth chart for 4 Nations is now Elias Pettersson (an elite offensive player when he's right), Hintz (who works on scoring and matchup lines), Mika Zibanejad (give him easy minutes and watch him thrive) and Joel Eriksson Ek (a Selke-caliber player who can be thrown to the wolves). Jarvis is in the mix at center, too, and Leo Carlsson will be back for the Olympics. It's not North American-caliber depth, but it gets us close. Kakko helps solidify the bottom six and can play either left or right wing.
Down the line, sending out the Red Wings prospects will hurt. Doesn't mean they're ready to contribute, though, and neither is going to fill the Victor Hedman-sized hole that'll be in the lineup come 2030 or so. Say it with me: We're trying to win gold medals right now. – Gentille
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That leaves Sweden with just one more deal to make, and they move quickly to make one more big addition. Literally.
The trade: Sweden trades Leo Carlsson to Team USA for Tage Thompson.
The Team Sweden view: Whoops. Add Thompson to that center depth chart. We believe in him and his one-of-one skill set, whether that's down the middle or on the right wing. Carlsson is going to be great, and he probably would've had a full-time spot by 2030 if Hintz, Thompson and Jarvis weren't added to the mix. They were, though. Tough luck. Also, NHL teams seem to love Anton Frondell; Scott Wheeler said in December that he's still on the periphery of the No. 1 overall discussion for the 2025 draft. That makes Carlsson even more expendable. – Gentille
The Team USA view: My original plan to spice up this tournament was to scatter the Hughes brothers to the wind. A Hughes in every pot! But while trading Luke would have been simple, trading either Quinn or Jack seemed awfully stupid. Speaking of stupid, Tage Thompson is not on my roster. He's 27, and the powers that be seem to have made up their minds about him, so I might as well get something for him. So I looked to the future and picked up my fourth-line center (Matthews, Eichel and Hughes aren't going anywhere) for 2030, 2034 and 2038 in Carlsson. We'll bring the kid along to 4 Nations to get him the experience, but he likely won't play now or in Italy. – Lazerus
We're waiting for GM Lazerus to address the media about this move, but he's delayed. It doesn't take us long to find out why, as a genuine goalie blockbuster hits the wire.
The trade: Team USA trades Jake Oettinger and Jake Sanderson to Canada for Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel.
The Team Canada view: I just got back from a meeting with Canada head coach Jon Cooper. He's really upset that I had to part ways with Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel, his guys, to make this trade. But he understood when I told him we'd be getting a No. 1 goaltender and a talented puck-moving defenceman who can run a power-play and defend. If Sanderson somehow isn't good enough to play at the 4 Nations, he's certainly on the radar for 2026.
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Also, there was a much bigger proposal on the table but the American GM wouldn't budge. I'm talking four players on each side and tons of star power, including a superstar player Lazerus wouldn't move. Would've been fun to do if ML wasn't so scared. But we settled on this one instead. I'm still content. – McKenzie
The Team USA view: The simple fact here is the Team Canada GM is a coward and didn't bite on my Connor Hellebuyck for Cale Makar proposal. The trade was one-for-one. That would have soothed my concerns about Quinn Hughes' health considerably for 4 Nations, and would have given me perhaps the best top pairing in the history of the game for the next couple of Olympics. I've got elite goaltenders coming out of my ears, so I tried to go for broke by dealing away the best of the bunch. Alas. But if there was one minor weakness on my ridiculously stacked roster, it was in the shutdown/energy roles. Cirelli is as good as it gets, and he and Hagel can lead my penalty-killing unit. And just as important, I can scratch Chris Kreider, who's on my team instead of Tage Thompson for reasons passing understanding. – Lazerus
With fans across North America reeling from seeing Team USA help their biggest rivals address their weakest position, we quickly find out that the Americans aren't done.
The trade: Finland sends Patrik Laine to Team USA for Dylan Larkin, Chris Kreider and Luke Hughes.
The Team Finland view: I don't need a powerplay specialist like Laine in this tournament because the refs are already going to be in the bag for Gary Bettman's pre-ordained Canada-USA final. So I keep one eye on the future by obtaining another blue-chip young defenseman, while also improving my forward depth. Is Larkin actually the best player in this three-for-one deal? He might be, and even if not, it's close enough to make this deal worth doing. – McIndoe
The Team USA view: Every team needs a little tension to keep everyone's edge, and J.T. Miller is merely one man. So throwing Patrik Laine and Zach Werenski back in the same locker room is just the jolt this roster needs. I don't want my team — which is clearly orders of magnitude better on paper than any of the other three — getting too comfortable. Complacency topples dynasties at any stage, even the first one. And while this trade might have made my team a little worse, it made it a lot funnier. That's got to count for something. Granted, this is not a deal I was eager to make, but the rules of this exercise mandated I humor Finland with a trade. I tried simply pawning off Luke Hughes for cash to cover tariff expenditures, but was rudely rebuffed by Mr. McIndoe. – Lazerus
With only one combination of teams left in play and the countdown to the 4 Nations trade deadline ticking, we figure we've already seen the biggest moves. We're wrong, because a buzzer-beater hits the wire, and it's a blockbuster.
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The trade: Finland sends Aleksander Barkov to Canada for Connor Bedard and Evan Bouchard
The Team Canada view: Canada's strength is through the middle. If you look through their most successful tournaments, the men's team has prided itself on having strength at center. Team Canada could easily build a forward roster of players who can play center and still be competitive. We all know of the star potential Connor Bedard has and this is very much a roll of the dice. But if he doesn't get better in his own end as he develops, he'll be a winger at future tournaments. Barkov becomes a must-play at center for Team Canada and you could put him alongside Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart at the 4 Nations and create a mega-shutdown line.
Parting ways with Bouchard may hurt, but Canada is deep enough with puck-moving defensemen to make up the difference. I'm trading for the sure thing here. – McKenzie
The Team Finland view: Look, I said it would take a ton for me to move Barkov, and Julian stepped up. In Bedard, I get a guy who could develop into my team's best forward for a decade or more. And Bouchard adds yet another blue-chip defenseman to my now completely remade blue line.
Does that add up to enough for one of the best forwards in the world right now? I hope so. Does it all but eliminate my version of Team Finland from contention in this year's 4 Nations? Probably. Could it more than pay off down the line? That's the gamble I'm taking. Is it a blatant conflict of interest to let a Canadian GM trade Finland's best player to Team Canada? This press conference is over. – McIndoe
(Note: Players added through trade are highlighted. Some teams are over the roster limit now but we'll deal with that later, which is to say, not at all.)
Mission accomplished. Skill influx complete. I still have a Vezina winner in net and the second-best defensive group in the tournament, and I now can roll these lines.
They're calling it the best Swedish chess match since 'The Seventh Seal.' Do not explore that comparison any further. – Gentille
Admittedly, my approach ended up feeling less like a scalpel and more like a sledgehammer. I realize that some Team Finland fans may not love that, especially if they'd already bought tickets to the championship game in two weeks. Still, these are bold moves that could pay off, and at the very least I feel like I've raised our ceiling significantly for next year and beyond, especially with the return of a healthy Heiskanen. – McIndoe
What did I lose? A goalie who wouldn't see any action, a forward and two defensemen who aren't even on my team, a good-but-replaceable fourth-liner, and a player who never should have been on my roster to begin with. What did I gain? Two playoff-tested, two-way standouts and penalty-killers, a power-play specialist who, when hot, is one of the best pure goal-scorers in the world, and a 19-year-old two-way center who'll be a fixture in my lineup for three or four Olympics to come.
I mean, my god, look at this lineup. Ridiculous. Of course, I could have stood pat and said the same thing. – Lazerus
I improved my goaltending without sacrificing any of my core guys, who I need to win games. I also added the heir apparent to Patrice Bergeron. Even if I sacrificed parts of my future to win, it's Canada. They still have incredible depth up and down the lineup and in their reserves. Put my centre depth against anybody at this tournament. We're winning.
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Speaking of reserves, I've called on John Tavares and Carter Verhaeghe (!) to make up some losses on the left wing. Tavares can play alongside Mitch Marner on a line. And while I'm dead set on my shutdown line, Bennett and Verhaeghe are interchangeable. Canada still has a chance to win at the 4 Nations, in 2026 and beyond. – McKenzie
(Top photo of Connor Bedard and Aleksander Barkov: Chris Arjoon / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)